Improvement in the construction of presses



UNITED STATES PATENT., OFFICE.

THOS'. XV. HARVEY, OF NEY YORK, N. Y.'

Spcification forming partof Letters Patent'NO. 2,941, dated February 4, 1943.

yTo all whom it may concern:

Beit known that LTHOMAs W. HARVEY, of the cityofNew York, in the State of New York,

have invented anew and useful Improvement in a .Machine or Press .for Pressing Bales of Cotton and other Packages, for the purpose of reducing them in size for convenience in shipping; and I do'h'ereby declare that the follow- `ing is a full and exact description thereof.A

My iirst improvement consists in the form which I give to the faces of the bed and of the follower of my press. In the manner of Vconstructing the presses hitherto employed for the compressing of cotton and other substances of a like character the bed and follower of the press used have been madeat; and when bales are thus. pressed and the baling-rope has been applied and secured to the baleit isinvariably found that on raising the follower and liberating the bale an essential change is produced in its form,'as the contained material will. from itselasticity, cause the sides of the bale to be- (come convex, and vthe thickness of the bale will,in consequence,be considerably increased, The baling-ropewill also at the same time sink deeply into that partl of the balewhich constituted its an gles'while it was under pressure,the bale being at that period rectangular. This springing 'out of the'bale-on the sides and the sinking of the'rope, at\the angles have inani-1 festly the effect of counteracting and undoing much of what .was accomplished by thepower applied tothe press. The improvement by -which`.[ obviate this diiicnlty consists in making the face of the. bed and of thefollower of the press-.concave from side to side alongtheir whole length, the concavity being such as will give .to the sides of the bale that convexity which it naturally tends to assume when the pressure is r'emoved from it. By means of this 'device the parts of the bale which form the angles, under the ordinary mode of procedure, are pressed harder than the other parts, and Athe `rope has, consequently, little or no tendency to sink more there than elsewhere, and the whole bale will maintain the same form and dimensions, nearly, after it leaves the press as that which it assumed while in it, and

it is consequentlyheld down several inches less in thickness than under the ordinary procednre. The press whichI prefer to use is of that kind which is usually known under the name of the toggle-joint or pro'gnessive-lever"IY press, and the levers of which are made to Opf crate, byineans of racks and pinions, ina man` v ner to be presently described.

' My second improvement con'sistsin the particular manner in lwhich I raise the bed of the press so as to cause the space betweenit and the follower to correspond with the thickness ofthe bale which is to be compressed, so thatl it may in all cases receive the full effect resulting from the straightening of the togglejoints. f

The accompanying drawings give a perspec tive representation of my improved press.

C the cap. Above the stationarybed is asec ond or adjusting bed, D,.and E is they follower or platen. The adjustable bed rests upon three 0r any preferred number of sliding wedges,G G G. rlhese wedges slide inguidegrooves and have racks (l d d upon their lower sides, into which the pinions fj'f on the shaft m are made to gear, so that by turning said shaft by means of the spoke-wheel K or by a winch acting upon a wheel and pinion-the wedges may be simultaneously moved back and forth and the adjustable bedD raised or depressed. Those who are inthe practice of repacking bales ofv cotton can'readily judge bythe eye of the amount of adjustment required in order to give to-each bale,when compressed, the same density snearly enough for all practical purposes, and this density, as beforeindicated, they should attain when the 'toggle-joint is straightened, without which precaution aportion of thepower, of thepress will be lost, a circumstance, that renders the adjustment of the beda matter offpi'imary importance.` The concavitypof thenfaees of the bedD and of the platen Emay be given t0. them by means of the battepsg g g, which cross themfrom side to side, asshown' inrthe endview f the follower,-

Fig. 2. Between these battens the baling-rope is to be laid in the ordinary way, the bed and follower ofthis press `not differing from othersl except in the concavity given to them for the purpose above set forth.

The gearing of this press may be varied; but 'the manner of gearing represented in the drawings has been found to answerwell in practice.

V isa winch, towhich the power of a man may be applied, and will be found sufficient.

On the shaft of this winch there is a pinion at b, which gears into the spur-wheel T. and a A-A are the posts, Bthe stationary bed,and,"

pinion atc on the shaft of this` cog-whecl gears Y into the large spur-wheel S, which is placed upon one end of the main shaft L of the machine. I use two sets of progressive levers or toggle-joints, the two levers of one set being vshown at I and J Each of the upper levers has a toothed segment, I', attached to it, into which segments the pinions R R engage, and thus serve to straighten the levers and press down the follower, or to raise it when necessary.

N is the upper step and P the lower step of the progressive levers.

aa are guide-pieces attached to the follower,

' and' which may be furnished with fricton-roll ers to bear against the posts A A.

I have said that the arrangement of the gearing of this press may be varied, and I have contemplated the so arranging it as to cause the toggle-joints to pass out between theposts at each end of the press as the platen or fol` lower is raised, instead of passing out toward the back, as shown in the drawings.- In this oase there will be two short shafts crossing the frame from front to back to perform the office of that marked L, each of them furnished with a pinion similar to those marked R.' This manner of arranging the parts will render the guide-pieces of the follower unnecessary, as the exure of the levers will not ca'use it to be lpressed against the posts. The driving-shaft,

crossing the end of the. machine, may then have a winch at each end and the press be Worked by two men, thegearin g being adapted thereto and to thc position of the togglejoints. W'hen iron bars areused to sustain the pressure instead of the posts A A, this arrangement will be especially appropriate thereto. Having thus fully described the nature of my improvements in the press for compressing bales of cotton and other artic1es,what I claim therein 'as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The manner in which I adjust the bed of the press and regulate its distance from the follower by means of a series of wedges placed between the stationary and the adjustable beds and moved back and forth simultaneously by means of racks and pinionsm, arranged substantially as above set forth. v

2. The manner of giving to the compressed bale while under pressure the form, or nearlys the form,which it will assume when the pressure is removed, by makingthe faces of the bed and follower concave, by which I am enabled to retain nearly the whole of the advantage gained in the operation of pressing, as herein fully made known; and although I have shown and described such an arrangement of the other parts of the press as I deem the best, it will be manifest that my improvements are equally well adapted to presses otherwise arranged, and may be employed therein with equal advantage.

THOS. W. HARVEY. Witnesses: A

VTiros. P. JONES,`

JOHN' Hrrz. 

